Baylor Basketball Vanquishes Surprising Stout UTRGV Vaqueros to Open Season, 96-81
WACO, Texas — The Baylor Men’s Basketball team (1-0) won its season-opener against UTRGV (0-1) by a score of 96-81 despite spotting the Vaqueros a 9-0 lead to start the game.
Redshirt sophomore Cameron Carr led the way for the brand new Baylor roster with 28 points on 9-for-14 shooting, including three bombs from downtown. This season’s highly touted freshman Bear, Tounde Yessoufou, was close behind with 24 points on 10-for-16 shooting.
The Bears’ slow start raised some eyebrows, given the apparent ease with which UTRGV scored and the focus on improving defense when constructing this roster over the offseason.
“I was hoping one time out would settle the nerves,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew said in the postgame press conference, “I guess we needed two. So the good thing is, right after that, I think everybody locked in and picked up what we were doing, and then, and then coaching staff did a good job adjusting our ball screen coverage too, and that probably helped.”
Over the course of the game, the Vaqueros shot 53.6% from the field in the first half and finished at 49% from the field and 41% from deep. So not particularly great figures for the Bears defensively, but things did become comfortable in the second half for the Green and Gold. Because of that first half though, practice likely won’t be so comfortable for the Bears this week.
“The thing that obviously we're all disappointed in would be the defense. So credit Rio Grande… the fact that we showed really good [defense in] stretches and like 12 minutes is a good sample size. It's not a one-minute or two-minute stretch. So I do know we can get there. We're not there now.”
They can only get there with practice.
Back to the offensive end for Baylor, fifth-year guard Obi Agbim scored 16 points and sparked the Bears’ first-half comeback with three triples in the period. The point guard also dished out five of Baylor’s 18 assists to lead the team in that category.
“I thought Obi was a lot more aggressive than he was in the first two scrimmages, which was great to see,” said Coach Drew, “And we missed him a couple times when he got going in that first half; we should have found him.”
Dan Skillings was the fourth Bear in double-figures, scoring 15 points and narrowly missing a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds.
A key for Baylor to find control of the game was winning the rebounding battle 42-26, including a 12-2 advantage in offensive boards.
Now the Bears have the rest of the week to prepare for the marquee non-conference matchup in the Foster Pavilion this season: Baylor vs. Washington. That game is set to tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. The broadcast will be available on ESPN.
